The views and photographs of Adrian Colston

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Gorse spider mites

One of the common sights on our heathlands this autumn has been gorse bushes enveloped in huge gossamer webs. There are lots on Piddledown Common and below Castle Drogo on the heath in the Teign Valley for example. These webs are made by tiny animals known as gorse spider mites – each mite is bright red and is less than 0.5mm in length but they live in large colonies.

It beggars belief that these tiny animals can make such huge and complex web

The gorse spider mite has been taken to New Zealand where it is used a a biological control to get rid of gorse which has been introduced to those islands and has become an invasive weed in some places. In Devon and on Dartmoor despite the large number of spider mite webs I would say the gorse still has the upper hand ……

3 thoughts on “Gorse spider mites”

Aha! Been trying to identify the spider for ages. A couple of the webs I’ve seen on Gibbet Hill (Blackdown) are gelatinous at the bottom, but of the same type. One I found is over 18″ in length and a foot high. Beautiful.